


A Campfire in Faron

by Ophelia_Black



Series: Midlink Week 2020 [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), in which midna demonstrates the timeless royal pastime of being an asshole, midlink week 2020, romance? in my midlink? it's less likely than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23642428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ophelia_Black/pseuds/Ophelia_Black
Summary: Midna almost comes close to realizing that she’s not as alone as she thinks. Maybe next time!Written for Midlink Week 2020. Prompt: Cursed
Relationships: Link & Midna (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Midlink Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704871
Kudos: 26





	A Campfire in Faron

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the impeccable [BasilOuija](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasilOuija), who is hosting Midlink Week over on tumblr

For all the time that they spent together, perhaps she should have been embarrassed to have taken so long to notice it. The defensive hunch of his shoulders, the drooped head, the shuffling steps. Mired as she was in her own misery, however, it was nothing, nothing at all.

It had been less obvious when the boy wore the shape of a beast, but as soon as he regained his natural form, it had been impossible for even Midna to deny his wretchedness.

As had quickly become their custom, Link had rummaged through the verdant forest for his dinner while Midna gathered up sticks and rocks to build a campfire, more to give herself something to do than because she particularly desired its blinding light and scorching heat. Truly, she could imagine no greater waste of precious wood, but as her human companion had predicted, it warded away monsters that stalked them in the night. Tonight, he returns with a fistful of berries and a small, furry animal that he proceeds to skin and gut with smooth, practiced motions. Silent, Midna watches the flash of the knife as it catches the last of the day’s light, and prays to any god that can hear her that this boy will have the skill to retrieve her prize from the far-flung depths of Hyrule.

Yet once the beast had been prepared, skewered, and roasted, Link does not eat, staring morosely at the morsel instead.

_Humans eat, don’t they?_ He had needed to as a wolf, at least, and why bother with the whole affair if he didn’t need it now? She didn’t touch the stuff, certainly, and even if she did require anything so pedestrian as physical sustenance, she’d sooner waste away than debase herself with the harvest of the light. Link knew better than to offer it to her, now, after the disaster on the first night of their partnership, when he had offered her half his charred fish. She wrinkles her nose, the taste rising to her tongue as though haunted by the specter of the foul creature.

Link sighs, and Midna turns her scowl onto him. “All right, spit it out. What are you so upset about? You got your body back and saved the light spirit.” His shoulders rise and fall, and she rolls her eyes. “Is this about your friends? I told you, I’ll help you get them, all right? As soon as we get the Fused Shadows.”

Under her withering glare, he manages a response. ‘It’s… it’s not that.’

She throws her hands into the air. “Well what are you moping about then?! It’s depressing me!”

He bows his head and looks down at his own hands for a long time, as though he doesn’t recognize them. She wonders if his body had been restored incorrectly, and pushes the thought down as forcefully as it had risen. _That’s not how it works. You’ll be ok. You’ll come back ok._

The boy frowns, but raises his head and fixes her with that insufferable blue stare. ‘They were going to attack me, at home. They thought I was some monster come to kill them while they were weak.’

_Is that all?_ She groans. “Well of course they did, you looked like a wild animal. They didn’t know it was you.”

‘They’re my family. The people in the village. They’re the only family I have.’ He frowns, the lines deepened by the flickering light from the dancing flames, adding a hundred years to his youthful face. ‘I know I’m just being stupid, Midna, but it still hurt to see them so… hateful. And afraid. Of me.’ His words slowly peter out, and it’s with red cheeks that he turns his head away.

Something about his words are too familiar to brush off, however, his fears too intimate to mock. “You’re not being stupid,” she mutters. “I know what you mean.”

He blinks in surprise. ‘Do you?’

_Ugh, I’ve said too much. Why do you always have to open your fat mouth, Midna?_ The desire to slip into the privacy of his shadow seizes her, but she forces the words out with a grimace. “My home is very, very far from here. And if I went back now, looking the way I do, it’d be the same thing. They wouldn’t know me, and I wouldn’t be welcome.” She closes her eyes. _It’s better that way. If they’re expecting me to come save them, it’ll be better that they don’t know it’s me._

Slowly, she opens her eyes once more, to see Link appraising her with knit brows. ‘Looking… the way you do?’

Midna’s hands ( _worthless, tiny, weak hands)_ ball into fists, and she leaps into the air, hovering above the stupid hero with his stupid green dress and his stupid sword. Glaring down at him, she’s not certain which of the two of them she hates more. “Obviously! You cannot possibly think that I’m supposed to be this horrible little imp, right?”

He raises his hands in a gesture of surrender, eyes wide. ‘No, no, of course not! I know you’re supposed to look like… uh…’ He frowns. ‘What do you normally look like?’

“Myself, of course. Don’t be stupid,” she scoffs.

It wasn’t a joke, but Link laughs anyway. It lasts only a moment, but the tension he had been holding seems to melt away, and the very air seems to grow lighter with the sound. ‘Of course. I should have known.’ When he looks up at her, a trace of laughter remains, and his smile is warm. ‘You’re going to help me get my family home, then I’m going to get you home. I promise.’

Gods help her, she believes him. What choice does she have?


End file.
